Warrant: Texas stabbing suspect had gruesome fantasies

Apr. 11, 2013
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Dylan Quick, 20, is charged with three counts of aggravated assault for a stabbing spree Tuesday that wounded 14 students at a Lone Star College campus outside Houston. / Harris County (Texas) Sheriff's Office/AP

by Rick Jervis and Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Rick Jervis and Michael Winter, USA TODAY

The mild-mannered library worker who authorities say went on a knifing spree Tuesday at a Houston-area college also fantasized about cutting people's faces off and wearing them as masks, as well as cannibalism and necrophilia, according to a search warrant released Thursday.

Dylan Quick, who police say stabbed 14 people with a razor knife at Lone Star College's CyFair campus, told investigators during a videotaped confession that he had researched mass stabbings on his personal computer about a week before launching the attack and had sharpened hairbrushes and pencils to use as a weapon, according to the warrant.

Only one person remained hospitalized Thursday, and that person was listed in good condition.

At his parents Houston home, where Quick lives, police found several books about mass killings and serial killers, along with a "Hannibal Lecter" mask and an animal dissection kit. Lecter is the cannibalistic serial killer in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.

"He stated that he had fantasized about cutting people's faces and wearing them as masks, since he was 8 years old," the document states.

Quick is on suicide watch and may be suffering an undiagnosed psychiatric disorder, his attorney toldThe Houston Chronicle.

Quick is charged with three counts of aggravated assault and is being held without bail. He had been scheduled to appear in court Thursday, but the judge waived his arraignment so psychiatrists could continue to evaluate him.

Quick is hearing impaired. He was born deaf but has cochlear implants.

According to the affidavit, he told investigators he had read several books about mass killers. Among the titles seized were Hit List, Hit Man and The Book of Five Rings, a 17th-century text on Japanese sword fighting,

Would-be serial killers often admire other mass killers and will even try to mimic their styles, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. But given that Quick allegedly stabbed people with a utility knife without killing or eating anyone points to someone who may have been more obsessed with notoriety than true cannibalistic desires, he said.

"It's not that he wants to consume flesh," Fox said. "He's just drawn to the powerful image of someone like Hannibal Lecter."